In agreement with legal process, Apple has now paid the first tranche of the $15bn total sum that the EU demands Apple pay Ireland. Whilst Ireland and Apple will object to the ruling in court, the EU believes Apple took advantage of an illegal low tax rate deal. The first 1.5 billion euro payment will be deposited into an escrow account that keeps hold of the money until a final legal judgement is reached....

Not only did the iPod (Rasputin) Classic not die as predicted (again) today, Apple is wrapping the ‘old man of the iPods’ up with its Apple Care Plus plans along with the more popular iPod touch. According to the updated iPod support page, Apple customers can now purchase an additional year of coverage for the iPods as well as phone support beyond 90 days and most importantly, two incidents of accidental damage coverage (+$29 service fee) for $59 here....

Apple has pushed out the third preview of the upcoming OS X 10.11, marketed under the name “El Capitan,” to developers today. The previous build was released on June 23rd, putting this release at just over the standard of two weeks between seeds. Previously it was reported that Apple would make El Capitan available to its retail employees to test. As new features and changes are discovered in this beta build, we’ll keep this post updated with a running list of additions....

A new report from BuzzFeed News highlights how the “Siri Suggested Websites” feature in Safari can surface “debunked conspiracies, shock videos, and false information.” Essentially, when users would type things such as “QAnon” or “Pizzagate” into the Safari search bar, the browser would suggest related “low-quality information.” The Siri Suggested Websites feature in Safari surfaces content from websites such as YouTube and Wikipedia based on the search term being typed into the search bar....

Adoption of Apple’s ‘Everyone Can Code’ curriculum, offered free of charge to schools and colleges, continues. The company today announced that 70 colleges and universities in Europe have opted to offer the program to their students … Apple first launched the curriculum in May of last year, when it was taken up by community colleges and high schools. The program was developed from an earlier ebook course offered by Apple....

Like it does every year, Apple has just kicked off its Back to School sale in both Australia and New Zealand ahead of the new school year. On top of the usual education pricing on Macs, iOS devices and more, Apple is offering a $100 App Store Gift card ($125 in NZ) on qualifying Macs and a $50 card ($65 in NZ) on qualifying iPhones and iPads. Apple notes that in order to qualify for the Back to School sale “you must be a uni student, a student accepted to a uni, a parent buying for a uni student, or a faculty or staff member from any grade level....

We’ve received word that Apple is building another enormous data center—this time in Hong Kong SAR, China. Apple recently finalized a location in the New Territories region of Hong Kong near the Shenzhen China border for the data center. We spoke to a bidding contractor employee who, on the condition of anonymity, told us the planned data center’s scale is unprecedented for his business: “There is simply nothing to compare it to and therefore it is hard to make estimates on size based on the materials required....

Apple Tower Theatre celebrated its grand opening today in Los Angeles. The new store marks the completion of an extensive historic restoration project and the first Apple Store downtown. In the Broadway Theater District, Apple worked for years with preservation experts, restoration artists, and the City of Los Angeles to reimagine and reactivate the historic Tower Theatre at 8th and Broadway streets. Apple Tower Theatre recalls the original splendor of the gilded movie palace era, blending thoughtful preservation with cutting edge technology....

Earlier today we reported that Apple was preparing to introduce new enhancements to AppleCare, Apple IDs, and a redesign to its online support sites in addition to a number of other support related improvements. Now, Apple appears to have just flipped the switch on its redesign for at least the Apple Support Communities forums where users can go to discuss problems and troubleshoot products through Apple’s website. The updated Apple Support Communities design has a much cleaner and more streamlined look and feel and extends through the entire Support Communities site including individual forum pages....

The latest macOS beta release is now available for developers with a number of bug fixes and performance improvements. Fixes have arrived for VoiceOver, AppKit, full-screen issues, and more while there are several new boot options included in this build. Apple released the second developer beta of macOS 11.1 today and it comes with a number of fixes and improvements. Resolved issues included in this release are for VoiceOver, App Kit, Mac Catalyst, a full-screen mode problem with iOS apps, and zoom-to-fit....

The e-mail that customers will receive Earlier this week, a report surfaced with claims that Apple is preparing to roll out a new remote and URL-based iOS Diagnostics service. Since then, we’ve learned that Apple Stores across the globe are already using a similar tool. However, we’ve now confirmed that Apple is in fact rolling out a new online tool that enables retrieval of diagnostic information from iOS devices. This tool is fairly different than the one being currently used at Apple Retail Stores and is geared towards all of Apple’s support operations worldwide, according to sources....

SDK beta 2 is now available as a 1.36GB download from Apple’s developer website. The kit contains all the tools developers may need to build applications for the device, and now also includes an Interface Builder, a visually-based tool that lets us build application interfaces using drag-&-drop. Developers also gain access to new sample code and technical documentation, as Cupertino’s iPhone dev team respond to the first batch of developer feedback....

You can now buy an iPhone-connected accessory for your dog through Apple Stores as the Whistle Activity Monitor officially goes on sale in Apple’s retail stores in North America. The product was previously available through select retailers and online, but today arrives as the Apple Store’s first iPhone accessory specifically for dog owners. The company has also added some new features and dropped the price to $99 to accompany the Apple Store launch:...

In an email to customers, Apple has announced that their iWork.com beta service will be shutting down effective July 31, 2012. The service was launched in early 2009 in concert with iWork ’09, and has served as an online method for document sharing and commenting. Apple tells users that iCloud, since its launch last fall, has grown popular enough to be a fitting replacement. The company recommends users to switch to iCloud’s Documents in the Cloud feature....

According to DailyTech, Apple is gearing up to launch a television set business this fall. The site claims that a former Apple executive spilled the beans on the project, saying “you’ll go into an Apple retail store and be able to walk out with a TV. It’s perfect.” This TV display is said to be powered by Apple’s popular iOS (currently runs on the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV)....

The first pre-orders for the new Apple TV 4K and redesigned Siri Remote aren’t supposed to arrive until Friday, May 21, but one lucky customer’s order has arrived early. The Reddit user Makivivu says that their Apple TV 4K pre-order arrived today, a full 48 hours ahead of schedule… As it stands right now, we have yet to see any embargoed press reviews of the new Apple TV or Siri Remote be published, unlike the iPad Pro and iMac....

The vibrant George Floyd mural surrounding Apple Pioneer Place in Portland, Oregon will live on under the care of nonprofit Don’t Shoot PDX. Apple donated the community artwork in hopes of preserving the sprit of 2020’s social and racial justice protests. Plywood barricades at Apple’s downtown Portland store gave a voice to the community this past summer, when muralist Emma Berger painted a portrait of George Floyd and the words “I can’t breathe....

According to a new report from TechCrunch, Apple recently acquired the domain name iCloud.net, one of the last remaining pieces related to iCloud that the company itself did not own. While it’s unclear when Apple made the purchase, the social network previously linked to that domain will shut down by the end of this month. This isn’t a super notable move on Apple’s part, but it marks the competition of the company’s quest to obtain all of the major web addresses associated with iCloud....

Apple has begun pushing the Beats Music streaming service via email to iTunes customers. The emails promote the free-to-download Beats Music app’s “Just For You” and “Tune Your Taste” features and note that Beats is now “part of the Apple family.” Apple finalized its acquisition of both Beats Music and Beats Electronics at the beginning of this month, and Apple has already begun promoting Beats Electronics via a new section on the online store and notable discounts....

One of Apple’s first original content efforts was a spin-off of James Corden’s popular Carpool Karaoke segment from The Late Late Show on CBS. While early reviews and user response to the series were mixed, Apple has renewed its Carpool Karaoke spin-off for a second season… CBS made the announcement during its earnings call this afternoon, leaving details sparse but confirming that a second season of Carpool Karaoke is indeed happening....